Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Hairy Bikers break EL James' run at top of UK chart

26 September 2012 - BBC

The Hairy Bikers have come the
first writers to eclipse EL James since April.

EL James has vacated the top of the
UK book charts after 22 weeks, according to trade magazine The Bookseller.

Fifty Shades, her trilogy of erotic novels, has been replaced at number one
by the latest book from celebrity chefs The Hairy Bikers.

Si King and Dave Myers' latest title, The Hairy Dieters, sold 36,235 copies
in the week up to 22 September.Fifty Shades Freed, which is the third book in James' series, slipped into
second place.It ends her dominance of the top slot, which started in April.The Hairy Dieters accompanies a popular BBC Two television series on loving
food and losing weight.Its sales of over the last week are the strongest from a paperback
non-fiction book since April 2009, when the late Jade Goody's memoir, Fighting
to the End sold 41,422 copies in seven days.Despite being knocked off number one, James' Fifty Shades books occupy the
second, third and fourth places in the official top 50 chart.According to Philip Stone, charts editor at the Bookseller, the trilogy sold
94,215 copies at UK booksellers in the last week, pushing total sales of the
books into seven figures.Since publication, James' novels have sold 10,063,700 copies meaning she has
become only the 12th writer to sell more than 10 million copies since records
began."EL James peaked in the first week of July and sales have been gradually
slipping since then," said Mr Stone."They've seen a 10% - 15% drop week on week, which is not unusual, but I
can't see any of her novels going to the top of the chart again," he added.According to the Bookseller, £29.3m was spent at UK booksellers between 15
and 22 September - a rise of £700,000 on the previous week.Compared to the same period last year, sales have dropped by 0.7%, or
£200,000.JK Rowling is likely to be at the top of the charts next week. Her first
adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, is published on Thursday.Online retailer Amazon said that pre-orders for the book were almost four
times as high as the nearest rival, Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Recipes.Both titles are expected to be big sellers in the run-up to Christmas.